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In 2007, technology’s center of gravity shifted in several directions at once: Apple’s iPhone reset expectations for connected devices, Google backed a shared mobile platform rather than its own phone, and large software companies bought capabilities and customers. At the same time, social networks became valuable strategic assets, botnets made online abuse more organized, and Windows Vista exposed the limits of a major operating-system upgrade. InfoWorld’s December 2007 list called the year “a time of realignment and redefinition” and presented these ten stories without ranking them by importance.
What were the top technology stories of 2007?
Marc Ferranti, InfoWorld’s executive editor for news, published the retrospective on December 14, 2007. The ten stories below reflect the year’s mix of corporate reshuffling, new platforms, security threats, and unresolved adoption or privacy questions. Deal values, sales figures, and other numbers are reported as they appeared in the 2007 coverage, not as independently verified current figures.
- Software consolidation. SAP bought Business Objects for $6.8 billion, IBM agreed to acquire Cognos in a $5 billion deal, and Oracle bought Hyperion for $3 billion while making a $6.7 billion offer for BEA. The deals illustrated how large vendors sought customer bases, expertise, and sought-after capabilities such as business intelligence and software as a service.
- Dell tried to reinvent itself. HP had displaced Dell as the global PC leader by 2006. Michael Dell returned as CEO in January 2007, and the company pursued enterprise and midsize-business services, expanded beyond its direct-sales model by selling in stores, and looked for growth beyond its established business.
- The iPhone redefined expectations for a phone. Apple launched the iPhone in June, drawing customers to queues from Tokyo to San Francisco. Its combination of phone functions, internet connectivity, multimedia, and design raised expectations for connected handheld devices.
- Botnets brought organized abuse into focus. Remotely controlled groups of compromised computers—sometimes numbering thousands or tens of thousands—could send spam, promote stocks or malicious products, and launch attacks. The April disruption of Estonian government websites showed their potential for disruption. In November, nearly 200 million spam messages promoting Ron Paul were sent without the campaign’s permission.
- Low-cost laptops tested the promise of access. One Laptop Per Child’s XO was promoted as a $100 laptop, but the price was closer to $200, production was delayed, and plans called for roughly 300,000 units in 2007. Intel sold $200 Classmate laptops in several countries, while Everex announced Linux PCs priced below $300.
- Google’s rumored “Gphone” became Android. Google’s November announcement was not a handset. It was a Linux-based software platform intended to let developers build applications for phones made by multiple manufacturers and used on different networks. Devices were expected in mid-2008.
- Viacom sued Google over YouTube clips. Viacom’s March 2007 lawsuit sought $1 billion over unauthorized television and movie clips on YouTube. Viacom said users had uploaded nearly 160,000 clips it owned, which had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times. The dispute made the legal and financial stakes of user-generated video hard to ignore.
- Facebook became a strategic asset—and a privacy flashpoint. In October, Facebook sold Microsoft a $240 million minority stake, valuing the company at $15 billion. The deal underscored social networking’s commercial importance, while Facebook’s Beacon advertising system prompted a privacy controversy.
- AMD’s Barcelona launch became a setback. AMD’s delayed Barcelona quad-core processor arrived in September after Intel had cut prices and released competing 64-bit and quad-core processors. AMD reported its fourth consecutive quarterly loss in October and delayed volume shipments while it fine-tuned the chip.
- Windows Vista’s launch failed to settle the upgrade question. Microsoft released Vista to consumers in January 2007, following its business release in November 2006. Microsoft said 88 million copies had sold by November, but reports cited stability and compatibility concerns, and corporate users were reluctant to upgrade.
Why was 2007 an age of realignment?
The stories reveal a year in which companies were repositioning as much as they were releasing products. Established vendors bought software capabilities and customer relationships; Dell sought new sales channels and services; and AMD’s attempt to compete on processors ran into Intel’s pricing and product moves.
Mobile technology showed another kind of shift. Apple made an integrated device a new benchmark, while Google chose to promote a platform that other manufacturers could use. That distinction—one company defining a device, another trying to shape the ecosystem around many devices—captures how strategic competition was changing.
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Social networking also moved from cultural phenomenon toward business infrastructure. Facebook’s valuation demonstrated investor interest, but Beacon showed that monetizing social activity could quickly raise privacy concerns. Meanwhile, botnets demonstrated how networked computing could be exploited at scale, and the Viacom suit showed how user-created platforms could face substantial copyright disputes.
Vista offered a contrasting lesson: a major release and a large reported sales figure did not guarantee an easy enterprise transition. Compatibility, stability, and the cost of upgrading mattered alongside the product announcement.
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What to remember about the year
- Consolidation and disruption happened together: large vendors acquired capabilities even as new devices and platforms changed expectations.
- The iPhone reset the bar for connected mobile devices, while Android represented Google’s bet on a multi-manufacturer software platform.
- Social networking became financially consequential, but its advertising model raised privacy questions.
- Botnets made online abuse more organized and scalable; platform owners also faced significant legal risks over user-uploaded material.
- Vista’s reception showed that shipping a major software upgrade was not the same as making organizations ready to adopt it.
Source: Marc Ferranti, “Top 10 stories of 2007: Age of realignment,” InfoWorld, December 14, 2007. Its rankings were not intended to indicate relative importance, and its figures describe reporting from 2007.
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